


Good Intentions

by Alexa_Piper



Series: Old tumblr shots [6]
Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Demon/Exorcist AU, Gen, backdated fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-03
Updated: 2013-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:48:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,261
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27222988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alexa_Piper/pseuds/Alexa_Piper
Summary: If something can go wrong, it will.
Series: Old tumblr shots [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1987381
Kudos: 5





	Good Intentions

“ _Wait for me!_ ”

“Well, hurry up, then!”

“It’s starting to rain, you know! My PDA’s gunna get all wet!”

“Shove it in your pocket and it’ll be fine – we’re almost there, anyway.”

“But what if she gets wet? I’ve only got three payments left on this baby!”

Sam ground her teeth, snatching the PDA off Tucker and shoving it down her shirt. “There,” she snapped, zipping up her hoodie, “it’s tucked in my bra. Even when it rains fairly heavily, my boobs don’t get wet for a while.”

Tucker made a sound somewhat resembling a whine. “But _Saaam,_ it’s cold and wet and the middle of the night and can’t we just go home?”

“Stop being such a baby,” the Goth scoffed.

“Guys, stop it,” Danny muttered distractedly as he ran his fingers over the garden wall’s rough surface. “This wall’s got plenty of handholds in between the rocks that it’s built out of.”

Tucker took one look and gulped. “That wall’s gotta be taller than your Dad, Danny!” he squeaked. “I can’t climb that!”

Sam stomped forwards, wedging the toe of one combat boot firmly into a hip-high gap. “Well, your PDA’s goin’ over with me, so if you wanna stay near it, you’d better come.”

Tucker rushed forwards with a cry, but the girl had pulled herself to the top of the wall in a few seemingly-effortless movements before the geek could reach. “Sam, come back!” he wailed, hopping from foot to foot in agitation.

“Shhh!” Danny hissed, pressing his hand sloppily over the other boy’s mouth.

Tucker stilled, nodding to his friend. “Sorry,” he whispered as the pale teen wiped his hand on Tucker’s yellow knitted jumper.

Sam dropped into the garden beyond with an almost inaudible thump. The two boys glanced at each other before scaling the wall and lowering themselves over the other side.

Danny landed clumsily in the layer of dead leaves, twisting his ankle. He cried out involuntarily, falling against the moss-covered stone wall and whimpering as Tucker landed on his backside in a puddle.

Sam placed a hand against Danny’s shoulder, ignoring the swearing geek. “Are you okay, Danny?”

The boy shrugged. “I think I’ve sprained my ankle.” At her worried look he held up a hand. “Don’t worry, I’ll be fine – I do it all the time. Weak ankles, remember?”

Tucker finally managed to get to his feet, wiping leaves off the seat of his cargo pants. “Can you walk?” he demanded.

Danny took a couple of deep breaths, rotating his afflicted ankle and flinching at the twinges of pain that lanced up his calf. “Yeah, I can handle it,” he announced, taking a couple of tentative steps. Each step sent a spike of pain through his injury, but the boy clenched his teeth and forced himself to limp towards the house. “We’ve come this far, we may as well finish it.”

Sam and Tucker followed, the geek rushing forwards to lend his friend a supporting arm as they mounted the back steps of the abandoned set of townhouses.

Sam moved in front of the others, removing from her backpack a case of strangely-shaped metal sticks and selecting two of them. She slid them into the lock, and in a handful of heartbeats a click sounded through the increasingly-heavy rain. The girl pushed open the door, cringing as the slime on its peeling surface lodged beneath her fingernails. “Go on,” she insisted, holding it open for her injured friend to limp through.

Once inside, Danny pulled away from Tucker. “I can walk now that nothing’s hidden beneath leaves,” he insisted, “so you hold the flashlight, please.”

The geek nodded, adjusting his soggy red beret and accepting a torch from Sam. The Goth held onto the other flashlight, sweeping its beam across the walls.

They were in what looked like a laundry, but where the appliances should be were now empty recesses in between the sink and the walls. The tiles were slippery underfoot, coated in grime and smashed in places. The wallpaper was soggy and peeling, stained with mould and other unpleasant things.

Gulping, Danny led his friends to the door. “Come on,” he muttered, pushing it open with a creak.

They stepped into a hallway that looked even worse than the laundry. Patches of carpet were not quite as faded as the rest, indicating the prolonged presence of bookshelves or similar furniture. The walls were the same as the previous room, but the carpet was worse than the tiles. It was torn and damp, stained by dark patches of growth similar to those on the wall. In addition, it _stank_. Danny wiped his nose against the back of his hand, grimacing before stepping aside to allow Sam and Tucker to move through the doorway.

“Gross, Dude,” Tucker groaned, the beam of his flashlight bouncing erratically off the torn wallpaper as he pressed both hands over his mouth.

Sam shoved the geek in the ribs. “Stop whining,” she ordered before turning to Danny. “We need to look for a place that the demon’d be most likely to occupy.”

The boy simply pointed to a living room visible through smashed glass doors. Furniture was still in there, looking pretty beaten up from the distance.

Sam headed for the doors, her boots crunching on shards of glass. “C’mon, guys,” she called over her shoulder.

Danny flicked damp hair out of his eyes and straightened his white cassock, reaching up to tug on the black amice settled around his shoulders. Tucker smirked, and the teen glowered at his friend. “It’s not all that comfortable,” Danny hissed, moving to fiddle with bulky black cuffs. “I wouldn’t be wearing this stupid exorcism thing if Sam hadn’t insisted,” he continued in a voice too low for the Goth to hear.

Tucker tapped the flashlight against his knuckles. “Yeah, I know. D’you think there’s actually a demon here?”

Danny shook his head. “I’m just humouring Sam – if there _was_ a demon, my parents would’ve already gotten it. I haven’t seen any of the usual signs of demonic activity, either.”

“Guys, get your butts moving!” said girl called from the living room.

Danny sighed, limping resignedly in the direction of the shattered doors. “Come on,” he muttered, dragging Tucker by the sleeve.

Once they stepped over the threshold, it was obvious that the furniture wasn’t simply worn by prolonged abandonment; slashes marred the exteriors of elegant cabinets, stuffing spilled from gashes in the couch, and the fireplace had deep gouges driven into its exterior of polished stone.

Something had caused these marks.

Tucker’s flashlight beam danced with his trembling hands. “S-Sam, shouldn’t we be heading back now?” he squeaked as Danny removed a vial of holy water from his belt.

The girl shot him a scathing look before moving towards a cabinet. “Whatever caused these has _got_ to be unnatural,” she whispered, reaching towards the damaged wood.

“Sam?” Danny choked, watching in horror as the holy water caused the hairs on the floor to sizzle and melt into faintly glowing sludge. “I don’t think we should touch-”

Sam shrieked, stumbling backwards as the cabinet began to shake at her gentle touch. Her cheap, plastic flashlight fell to the floor, smashing on impact.

The room was illuminated by a burst of lightning, thunder exploding against their ears a handful of seconds later. “Sam!” Danny shouted, rushing to where she had fallen on the floor.

She took his extended hand, allowing the boy to tug her to her feet as another bolt of lightning cracked the sky open.

Thunder crashed, its sound blending with the splintering of wood as the cabinet door was wrenched off its hinges. Danny pulled the Goth with him as he backed away from the thing, moving slowly in the direction of Tucker.

In the darkness of the cabinet, two glowing orange eyes glared.

“Sam, get behind me,” Danny whispered, clasping a fresh vial of holy water in one hand as he used the other to slowly reach for the pouch attached to his utility belt.

The eyes narrowed at the boy’s movement, tracking his hands. “Exorcissst?” a chilling imitation of a human voice hissed from the darkness.

Danny loosed a Holy Bible in its pouch, holding up the vial in his free hand. “Th-that’s right!” he exclaimed with a bravery that he did not feel, “So why don’t you behave?”

The creature cackled, an inhuman sound that raised the hairs on the backs of the teens’ necks. “Little exorcissst wantsss to play, hm? I am ssso hungry, haven’t had human for monthsss.”

Danny swallowed thickly as his friends cowered behind him. “You’re not eating any more humans!”

“Little exorcissst ssshould learn to hold hisss tongue,” the voice mused, and the darkness within the cabinet shifted. “Little exorcissst and assistantsss have woken me, and now I mussst feed. Your young soulsss sssmell deliciousss, yesss they do!”

Before Danny could respond, a figure emerged from the shadows. It straightened to its full height, all six feet of the creature reaching almost to the ceiling and stretching its lips over yellowed fangs in a truly ghastly grin. It shook its head like a dog, Tucker’s trembling flashlight beam illuminating hairy skin that stretched over bulging muscles. Great curved horns split the creature’s forehead, and its tail swished from side to side as it flexed wickedly clawed fingers.

Tucker whimpered, grasping onto Danny’s shoulder and staring in horror at the beast. “Danny, do something,” he squeaked in a voice choked by fright.

Danny took a calming breath, throwing the vial of holy water at the demon before them. It burst on impact with the creature’s forehead, and the demon howled, clasping its face and stoping cloven hooves on the floor. Any skin touched by the water seemed to boil, steaming gently and creating a truly horrible stench.

It shook its head to recover as Danny finally removed the Bible from his pouch, then lunged for the teens.

The two more athletic children managed to duck below its clawed swipe, but the creature still claimed its prize – a screaming Tucker was lifted into the air, writhing pathetically in the demon’s grasp. “Danny, help!”

Danny flicked open the scriptures in his hands, wincing as Sam dug her nails into his bicep. Relieved that his parents had once forced him to colour-code specific passages, Danny turned the pages until he spotted a passage outlined in orange – a colour to match the demon’s eyes, which indicated its power level. Only two colours were more powerful than orange; red was the second strongest, leaving black as the most powerful of all.

Clearing his throat, Danny began to read in a loud, unwavering voice as Tucker was squeezed mercilessly. The boy’s shrieks prompted the teen to hurry his words, and Sam winced as Danny slurred a couple together. The boy slowed slightly, knowing that if he slipped up again, the exorcism may not be successful.

As Danny reached the final verse of the highlighted six, the demon’s tail shot out, roughly banging against his injured ankle with enough force to make him stumble. The pain caused the boy to yelp, but he finished the sentence nonetheless, staring straight into the demon’s glowing orange eyes.

The creature howled in agony before diffusing into tendrils of shadow. Tucker was dropped to the floor, screeching as his wrist snapped on impact.

The darkness that had been the demon began to fade away, but Danny shuddered, moving backwards as a couple of the tendrils reached towards him. “Wait, st-stop it!” he shouted, tripping over his own feet and landing roughly on the filthy carpet. “N-no, keep away!”

The words blended into a shriek as the shadows reached him, sliding up Danny’s arms beneath his sleeves and slipping down the collar of his clothes. They were cold against his skin, and surprisingly solid. “ _Get away!_ ” The teen shouted, struggling to free himself as the tendrils settled against his skin. They slid over him, moving to cover his entire body, including his face. His heavy breaths turned to a scream, and Danny jerked where he lay, agony ripping through him as the shadows sank beneath his skin.

The tortured sound continued until there was no air left in Danny’s lungs, and still he tried to scream, writhing on the floor and unable to breathe as something shifted within him.

Every muscle went tense, and Danny made a choking noise as he felt the base of his spine explode. A similar sensation followed in the space just above his temples, and the teen thrashed as flames surrounded him.

The fire burned for a handful of seconds before disappearing, and when it did, Sam let out a scream that chilled Danny to his core. He rolled onto his stomach, using trembling arms to shakily push himself into a sitting position.

“What… urgh, what _happened_ just then?” Danny groaned, closing his eyes and reaching up to massage his throbbing skull.

On either side of his head, just above his temples, Danny’s fingers met something hard and smooth. His eyes shot open, and he pulled his hands away as though burned. His hands that, in the dim light from a streetlamp that filtered through broken windows, appeared _clawed…_

Danny froze. “Tucker, give me some light,” he whispered in a voice that trembled.

Before the geek could reach the remaining working torch, lightning illuminated the room enough for Danny to see that those were indeed wickedly curved claws in the place of fingernails, his outfit had inverted colours, and curving around from behind him… _was that a tail?!_


End file.
